Damien Inglis Scouting Report: August 2014

The Bucks have a very intriguing collection of athletes for Jason Kidd to work with. The least touted among them is second round pick Damien Inglis. The 19-year-old wingman of French citizenship has a superb physical profile for his age; measured at six-foot-eight and 240 pounds at the Nike Hoop Summit. His effort and intensity on defense is also impressive in the context of his youth. You rarely see 19-year-olds busting their asses on that end of the court.

Inglis has displayed good lateral mobility to defend smaller players in isolation and uses his frame to contain dribble penetration through contact. He didn’t allow much separation and contested shots very effectively due to his eight-foot-11 standing reach, which was a handful for opponents in the French league at this point. His team allowed 110 points per 100 possessions last season but only 104.2 with him in the game.

Because of his size, Inglis is a prototypical wing for coaches to use as a stretch four in smaller lineups. He was attentive to his help responsibilities and showed decent, though not great, speed closing out to shooters on the perimeter. Inglis wasn’t a real asset in rim protection for Roanne but is capable, able to get off the ground in a pinch, and posted good blocking rates as a big man at the junior level. He is particularly impressive as a rebounder and has proven himself able to box out bigger players, collecting almost 24% of opponents’ misses when he was on the floor, which led the French league among small forwards.

The concerns regard how well he will translate on offense. Inglis was a hesitant shooter in his first year as a full time pro, taking just 31 three-point attempts in 412 minutes. He doesn’t get good elevation off the ground and his release is slow. Inglis can attack closeouts effectively due to his quality passing out of dribble penetration but has an average-at-best first step, doesn’t have the long strides players of his size usually do and struggles to create separation. He dribbles the ball high in traffic, which makes him susceptible to getting the ball stripped; his 23.5% turnover rate is sky high in the context of his 17.2% usage rate.

What Inglis does particularly well on offense at this point is overwhelming smaller players in isolation and scoring in transition. He’s able to maintain his balance through contact due to his strength, which makes it difficult to contain him on straight line drives. Inglis used to run point at the junior level, which is why he is comfortable handling the ball on the break. He has flashed an intriguing hesitation move to get to the basket in isolation but is more often looking to pass off the bounce. Inglis didn’t draw fouls at a high rate (fewer than two free throws per 28 minutes) but shot 55% on his 61 two-point attempts.

In the future, Inglis should become a solid role player for the Bucks. However, his overall impact will most likely depend on the development of his shot. The best comparison to him might be DeMarre Carroll of the Hawks. Carroll has always been a high-effort, high-energy defensive player, but didn’t become the excellent role player that he is now until his shot became a weapon from the perimeter. Overall, Inglis plays with the type of effort that coaches love, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him step into the Bucks’ rotation for next season at any point because of it.

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Rafael Uehara

Rafael Uehara is a contributor at Upside & Motor. More from him can be read at basketballscouting.wordpress.com, his personal blog, and bballbreakdown.com, where he's also a regular contributor. He can be followed on twitter @rafael_uehara.